London Coffee Festival: The Aftermath

London Coffee Festival: The Aftermath

Well we can honestly say that the London coffee festival 2016 had everything we could have ever expected and much much more. This year was the biggest coffee festival yet, which meant an army of over 35,000 coffee fanatics (and hipsters) invaded brick lane for the four day festival. There was plenty of exciting things to see as well as some intriguing new ideas. These ranged from butter made with chaff (coffee skin) to lavender flavoured flat-whites and skin creams made of coffee grounds. Now I am not sure if all of these are likely to catch on, (we will have to wait and see) and I still cannot decide if I liked lavender in my flat white or not. Either way it is fantastic to see the boundaries being pushed in such a way, which is one of the great things about the coffee industry in general.

Of course there were also huge amounts of coffee that needed to be tried, resulting in a lot of very over caffeinated and excited people. It is always interesting to see what the farmers are producing this year as well as how any changes they have made, especially in their processing, will impact upon the flavours of their coffee. We cupped various different rain forest alliance certified coffees and found some great tasting coffees as well as discussing the best roast profiles so that we can get the most out of every coffee we roast.

Finally we could not resist watching the coffee masters and the UK barista championships in full swing, especially with the new barista championship format. These competitions are always exciting and it is fascinating to see the new ideas the baristas have come up with for their signature drinks.

It is fair to say that as always the London coffee festival has inspired us and given us some new ideas that we will be experimenting with in the coming weeks. We will keep you updated with all the progress we make and you can expect an exciting announcement about a new coffee in the near future!